lostrealm | The English Patient [OPEN]

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The English Patient [OPEN]

Characters: England AND YOU
Date: September 15-22
Format: starting with prose, but I can follow whatever you want
Content Warnings: possible swearing and conversations about violence. also England is a masochist.
Summary: England was taken to the hospital by Stein after brutally being beaten up by Germany. People are welcome to visit, though he may be a bit loopy because he's on painkillers.
Notes: please no communicator posts. come visit in person. also, it'd be cool if you mentioned which day you visited in the subject line, though this is not necessary.

He really needed to stop sticking out his nose for Darstone. England thought he was doing the people a favor, and it had backfired on him. Twice. By now, his confidence had dwindled considerably. The only thing he wanted to do was run away and hide. Perhaps moving into the mining caves would be a good idea after all.

The island spent most of his time staring up at the ceiling remembering the fight. Germany had been acting so unlike himself. England was certain he'd been under some sort of spell, but he wasn't sure what that was. What a bother! He didn't know what happened after he'd been knocked unconscious, but he actually hoped that Germany was better. Yes, he was worried about his enemy. No, his fellow country. Because that wasn't right. Once England found out what had gone on, and if someone else was truly responsible, he wouldn't blame him.

That didn't mean he despised him any less. At least for the moment.

England's eyes slid shut. He nodded on and off throughout the day and night. After all, there wasn't much else to do. He had two arms and one leg in a cast, a neck brace, and various scrapes and bruises along his body, especially on his face where Germany had applied the most pressure. Thank goodness he was a country and he wouldn't have to be holed up here for much longer. England healed faster than a human. Still, it wasn't pleasant to be in this condition.

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It was a good thing he'd gone on, because sure enough, she'd opened her mouth to indignantly protest. That makes her shut it, though, and frown. She's used to trusting someone's judgement unequivocally, as doubting them opened the group up to huge vulnerabilities, and she applies that here, too. It's easy for Willow; she's naturally trusting.

"A mind spell... But who did it? That's pretty advanced, difficult magic, and I bet you guys are harder to control than the average person. There can't be that many people here capable of doing that."

"How should I know?" England huffed. Even with his magic, he could not control minds. That was something that was quite taboo in his world. He didn't see it often. "I couldn't get close enough to talk to him. All Germany wanted to do was fight. And laugh. At me."

"I was thinking out loud," she protests, feeling slighted. She was trying to be so good, taking some of his pain and not getting into an argument about Prussia. Willow didn't feel like she really knew them well enough to be as involved as she was, so she didn't want to butt in more.

But she did deserve some credit, darn it. She pouts. "That's how it works. We hash out what happened and come up with a plan of action. Though I think your action is going to be staying in the hospital-- you look pretty bad," she says frankly, worry emerging again.

"Hey, it's no problem," John said cheerfully. And since England was enjoying it so much, he went ahead and added some more drawings. The unicorn soon was accompanied by a shitty drawing of a man in a top hat and a monocle holding a cup of tea and being so stereotypically British it hurt. Then he tried to draw the UK flag, but he forgot the white borders around the red part. To finish it off, he went ahead and drew the light-blue symbol that happened to be on his shirt. It was a cool symbol and England needed to be cool too.

The country cleared his throat, suddenly feeling small. Yes, he was bad. And he hated looking so weak. England was a proud man.

"I'm not sure what else I can do," he admitted sarcastically, upset with the situation. "Every time I try to help this place, I wind up doing more damage than good."

The stereotype was appreciated. It actually made England laugh. Genuinely! He had a good sense of humour, and John was taking his mind off the bad things that had happened to him for the moment. Once the boy added the symbol, England's curiousity was piqued. He'd noticed it on the shirt.

"Does that mean anything?" he asked with interest.

"It's actually from a game," John said, being honest for the most part, "The players all get different classes and aspects that give them cool powers and stuff. In the game, I'm the Heir of Breath, and the wavy thing there is the symbol for it."

Plus Dave just thought it looked cool. Most of the symbols did, but he liked how the Breath symbol wasn't a circle of some sort like most of the others were.

Hm. England had never heard of a game like that. He was used to board games, or cricket. "What is the goal?"

"Well, it involves chess, and all the players are on the white pieces team, and we have to beat the Black King." It seemed simple enough to him, even though his particular game had gotten out of hand. "It's like a video game. That's where I got my cool clothes from too."

Chess, England could understand. But there was something else in there that didn't make sense, and momentarily pulled his focus from the object of the game John was attempting to explain.

"...Video... game?"

"What, never played a video game before?"

It was hard for John to imagine a life without video games, but maybe this guy came from a weird alternate-earth where they had never been made.

England tried to shake his head and then remembered he couldn't again. Being broken was such a bother! "I've never heard of such a thing," he replied. "How do you play it?"

Whooo boy this would take a while to explain. "You play it on a computer, or on a tv, or anything electronic with a screen I guess. But it's like reading a book, except you're playing it. They can be anything: fantasy, war, sci-fi, whatever. And there's different ways to play each game. I like RPGs myself."

Whoa there, John. You're going too fast for England! He knows what a television is, but not a computer. It's making his head hurt. "What is an RPG?"

"A role playing game! You know, where you pretend to be something you're not." He doesn't know how old RPGs are, but he knows some people dress in costumes and run around yelling stuff about magic missiles, and that has to be way older than video games.

"When your hands aren't broken I'll see if I can find one for you to try. They're really fun, you're missing out if you've never played them before."

"That might be interesting," England mused. He was beginning to feel tired again. That was probably because his brain was working so fast trying to keep up. "Though I haven't played pretend in a long time."

"Well just worry about healing for right now," John said with a smile, "You can't do much about it right now. But I'll definitely find one and grab you to come play it when you're better."

He thought he had two months time to do so, which would give him plenty of time.

England smiled back, feeling happy that he met a new face. There were a lot of nice people here, and he wasn't the most social butterfly. But when a stranger went out of their way to speak to him... well, England appreciated that. He stifled a yawn and looked down at the drawings on his cast again. The other ones looked plain. Perhaps he could get more people to write on them.

"Let's stay in touch then, John. I apologise that I'm not very exciting right now."

"It's alright, it's gotta be tough to stay awake with all those broken bones making you tired. Just bug me over the mirrors if you want to talk some more."

And with that, John went over to the window, jumping out the way he had initially came. The permanent markers were left on the table for England, so that other people could draw stuff if they wanted to.

Oop! He was gone as quickly as he came! Ah, well. England had enjoyed that very much. He would be glad to see John once his wounds had healed.

Now that he had some time alone, though, he would rest and probably dream about strange games and unicorns.

She recognizes that look from Giles trying to put on a stiff upper lip, too, and frowns at him.

"You're not doing damage. You're trying! And you've probably been through way worse than this. I mean, you're England," she says, trying to reassure him. "I can't imagine how much stuff you've been through. You can handle this, and I won't take no for an answer."

"I'm not saying I can't handle it!" He finally raised his head and his voice. He was tired of failing, tired of sticking his nose out for people and not getting anything out of it. He'd come from a time where he was in pain and was forced into a new world where he was still in pain. And he was angry. He wanted to go home. He didn't want to be in a hospital anymore. "I'm saying I can't do anything more to assist Darstone."

She flinches at the yelling, her expression crumbling into something more vulnerable. It makes her head ache, too, with all the pain she's still carrying.

"Hey... I... I didn't say that. You can help, you just can't right now. But they don't give us a time limit or anything-- you'll get back home." Her voice softens with genuine concern, eyes searching his, trying to impress her sincerity. It's not hard to guess why he's so worried about it. "Calm down, okay?"

Willow's calm voice does relax England, and he backs down, shoulders drooping and expression relaxing. He hadn't meant to yell. He's just so... damn... frustrated with everything. Mostly himself. Right now, he has no confidence.

He wishes he could rub his face. Or roll over. Or something other than lie there helpless and immobile.

"...I can't help," he repeats. "I haven't done anything other than get myself into trouble."

"You can help me," she says firmly, forgiving him readily and recognizing that he needs something constructive to do. "We need to find out who was mind controlling Germany. If they had a reason behind it, what else we can expect-- or if they were just doing it for giggles, which is even worse.

"You know them way better than I do. I could really use your help."

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The English Patient [OPEN]

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8D icon is to show off the symbol btw

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y u so cute john

because he is

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